Quake III Arena Hopper Engine Version 3.0 Released! news

Title : Quake3 Arena Hopper Modification v3.0
Author : a13xoloid
description : Universal Bot AI Modification (engine)
platform : Windows95 or above

* Description *

Originated from Tier666 Mod, Quake3 Hopper is a generic bot AI modification for QuakeIII Arena and her mods.
Bots can now jump around the level like human players or sand hoppers.
You can expect more on enjoyable hunting experience.

* Features *
- supporting almost all the maps and mods ever released on the fly (mods that have modifed movement physics or bot AI are unlikely to mix well)
- movement AI quite different from original Quake3
- map roaming AI quite different from original Quake3
- wider range of render setting
- sampling human player jumps from demo file as a helper waypoint for bots

* Play Information *

- make sure you have retail version of Quake III Arena installed on your PC, ideally patched to version 1.32 or above
- unzip the contents of "quake3-hopper-v3.0.zip" to your Quake3 folder, so that "quake3-hopper.exe" sits in the same directory with original "quake3.exe"
- just double click "quake3-hopper.exe" to play (or you can create your own shortcut)
- if you bring down the console and see the orange signature "Hosted By Quake3 Hopper" at the bottome right, the hopper is properly running
- if this is the first time for you to use hopper, it is recommended to have a quick 1v1 match in a small map like q3dm1

your_quake3_directoy\ (such as C:\games\quake3\)
|
|_quake3.exe
|_quake3-hopper.exe
|
|_baseq3\
|_ hopper.pk3 (required to enable bright skins)

* Change Log *
v3.0
- added a new feature to sample player jumps from demo file for use as a set of helper waypoints toward target item
NOTE : only normal jump can be sampled properly (no rocket jumping)
NOTE : up to 16 sets of waypoints can be loaded for each map, and each set can have up to 8 jumps
NOTE : a setting of g_synchoronousClients 1 and pmove_fixed 0 is recommended when recording demo
- added a new CVAR r_simplePlayerSkin that toggles simple skin for player models
- added new CVARs r_simplePlayerSkinR,G,B which respectively designate RGB element for skin color of player model
- r_huntMode can now make all lighting elements gray (not only lightmap but also vertex color and lightgrid color)
- g_forcerespawn is now always set to 1 second on server start to cope with bot respawn bug in some mods including Team Arena

v2.2
- bots can now dynamically hop to higher targets that are supposed to be reachable by rocket jumping
NOTE : bots can do this even if they don't have rocket launcher, and they wont't even receive knock back damage
NOTE : if "hopper_allow_godlike" is set "1", bots can exceed the max height reachable by rocket jumping
- bots can now fall down stairs pretty quickly
- bots can now play hazardous maps better (i.e. q3dm17, q3ctf3)
- added new CVARs r_fastSkyR, r_fastSkyG, r_fastSkyB which respectively designate RGB element for fast sky
- fixed a silly bug on hopping where incorrect direction was evaluated, bots can now hop more often and more securely
- pmove_fixed is now always disabled (was forced to be enabled), resulting in more precise bot movement
NOTE : due to the nature of q3hopper, it should not be enabled, or various sync errors will arise even on localhost
NOTE : however it can be safely enabled if g_synchronousClients is enabled as well, at the expense of noticeable missing frames (not recommended unless you're about to record a demo)
- drastically optimized jump prediction code(should now be much faster/safer)

v2.1
- fixed a fatal sync error where some events(sound, powerup timer) are not transmitted properly

v2.0
- added numerous hopper_* CVARs to enable/disable/configure bot movement based on the characteristics of mods/maps or on your preference
NOTE: these new CVARs will be written to "q3hopper.cfg" so as not to pollute existing "q3config.cfg" that resides in the same directory
NOTE: some of the original yet a bit modified render CVARs will stay in "q3config.cfg" (i.e. r_ambientScale)
NOTE: old broken hopper_* CVARs may remain in "q3config.cfg", they can be safely deleted
- bots can now use air acceleration
- bots can now gain decent horizontal speed on initial jump (circle jump emulation)
- bots can now continue air acceleration up to 2 jumps if possible (strafe jump emulation)
- bots that are holding rocket launcher(or weapon index 5) during combat can now gain additional vertical speed on jump (rocket jump emulation)
- fixed various broken render variables
NOTE : fogs can now be completely eliminated through "r_drawFog"
NOTE : "r_minLight" can now affect all the dynamic/static vertex color as well as lightmaps

v1.0
- bots can now hop more often